1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a vehicle seat assembly. More particularly, the present invention relates to a vehicle seat assembly for a seat row that allows for increased access to another seat row positioned further rearward in the vehicle than the seat row.
2. Background Information
Vehicles such as vans, sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and so on often have more than two rows of seats. However, such vehicles having more than two rows of seats typically create challenges for vehicle designers. For example, many vans and SUVs have three rows of seats, namely, a front or first row, a rear or second row, and a third or back row behind the rear row. Therefore, unless the vehicle includes a large sliding side door, access to the third row of seats will typically require adjustment or repositioning of one or more of the rear row seats.
Conventionally, to provide access to the third row of seats, the rear row of seats can include cushions that tilt upward, seatbacks that fold down, and/or seats that are capable of sliding forward. Except for the forward sliding features, all of these features require that at least one second row seat is unobstructed in order for the third row of seats to be accessed. Naturally, this presents little difficulty and inconvenience when a seat in the rear row is empty or an occupant of the seat can quickly and easily move so that the position of that seat can be adjusted to access the third row seats. However, this becomes much more problematic when a rear row seat is obstructed by a rigid obstacle such as an installed child seat or another object. Therefore, even if a rear row seat can slide forward somewhat while obstructed, this limited forward movement may only marginally increase the ease of access to the third row of seats. Also, these types of seats typically include an under-seat lever or “towel bar” that is manually actuated to enable the seat to be slid forward. However, this manual actuation may become inconvenient or impossible when the seat is obstructed.